Released 1986 Label Sire Records "Wild Wild Life"
(1986) "Love for Sale"
(1986) | Genre Rock, new wave Writer(s) David Byrne | |
Producer(s) Andy Zax, Talking Heads | ||
"Wild Wild Life" is a song by the American new wave band Talking Heads. Released in 1986, it was the lead single from their album True Stories.
Contents
Music video
The video for the song won "Best Group Video" at the MTV Video Music Awards in 1987. Taken from the film True Stories, with some additional content, it includes Jerry Harrison parodying Prince. "My favorite T. Heads video, the most fun to make," Harrison recalled in the liner notes of Once in a Lifetime: The Best of Talking Heads. "I always wondered what Prince thought of it." The other three members of the band also appear in various costumes.
The video is set in a 1960s ambienced cabaret bar, where a frantic series of unannounced performers lip sync to the song, imitating such singers as Madonna and Billy Idol as disjointed images play across a wall of video screens behind them. Byrne wrote about this scene:
The song itself becomes a vehicle that can say anything they want it to. Some gestures and movements are obviously derived from well-known sources: television shows ... movies ... and, most recently, rock videos. Odd to think that some lip-synchers are imitating characters in videos, who are really musicians imitating other characters.
Actor John Goodman, prior to his fame in the sitcom Roseanne, appeared in both the film and MTV versions of the video. Goodman was also featured on the B-side's "People Like Us", a song which also appeared in the film. Meat Loaf also appears in the video.
12": Sire Records / 9 20593-0 (US)
Use in media
The song was covered by Wailing Souls for the 1993 movie Cool Runnings.
The song was used in a trailer for the 2003 animated film Brother Bear.
The song was also featured in trailers for the 2006 animated film Over the Hedge, at the beginning of the 2006 animated film Open Season, and was included on the Open Season soundtrack CD.
Other performances
David Byrne had never played the song live until he and St. Vincent added it to the setlist for their Love This Giant tour. It was played live for the first time on June 11, 2013, at the Wellmont Theatre in Montclair, New Jersey, with each of the eight-piece brass section taking turns to sing a line of the song twice during the performance.